090316 - 090516

What a great way to spend Labor Day weekend.  This area is just a small portion of the great lakes & rivers that can be found in the 'Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest' near Boulder Junction, WI.  It was a repeat of a trip I ran over Memorial Day weekend, but with way better weather conditions. A few of the paddlers drove up on Friday afternoon to camp at N.Trout Lake, while a few others did the 6 hour drive to meet up at the Escanaba Lake put in. The weather was perfect, no bugs, low humidity, low 50's for sleeping, sunsets were spectacular  ...  Ahhhh.  It did rain a little bit on Monday morning, but not enough to dampen our spirits.  We portaged into Lost Canoe Lake and found a superb, low impact campsite and spent the next two days just chillin.  Reading, napping, hiking, swimming, nature paddles were the order of business for the weekend.  And did we ever relax!!  This area is so well maintained and very low impact from other paddlers, it's amazing.  Locating adequate firewood for our resident 'fire meister' was super easy.  And the campfires we had, wow!  We encountered eagles, loons and other north woods critters.  We were so sad to have to portage/paddle out on Monday, I had to spend a couple more hours paddling & exploring the islands & shoreline of Escanaba Lake before I made the long drive home.  Plans are already in the works to return in the spring of 2017 for another lake-river trip.